How to make a solid external hard drive?

I'm using a 7200 rpm 500 GB Western Digital MyBook external hd now but am thinking of an upgrade in terms of transfer rate. All other hd's out there have only Firewire or USB 2.0; however, many mention buying external closures and just putting an internal desktop hard drive inside it.. my question is: how can that thing even function being so flimsy? Doesn't it jostle around and what not, a hd just inside a metal container? Does it include a power supply so I only need to plug it into the wall? Lastly, my hd right now has only 2 Firewire 400 and a USB 2.0 port.. I want something faster like eSATA II and pair it with say a 10,000 rpm WD Raptor X.. is this possible/feasible?

And if not this, any recommendations for building one with a faster transfer speed than mine that can connect to my HP dv6500t?

 

All hard drive enclosures have screws to secure the hard drive in place, and most have external power connectors (either that or twin USB plugs to draw power from the computer).

You should be more than able to get an eSATA enclosure and put any SATA hard drive you like inside it.

 

I would also recommend eSATA for maximum performance. You will need to get a n eSATA Cardbus / ExpressCard adaptor but this will then give you the best possible transfer rates.

John

 

What kind of a performance difference can be noticed through external and internal drives. Has anyone tried to optimize the performance of an external and then measure the internal/external against one another?

Im asking because I am considering using an SSD as an external and wonder if I could boot performance programs from the external for use and expect the same results as if i had it installed internally.